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Jessica Paola Quichis Mautino, Peru, is congratulated by Senior Judge Robert J. Eby after becoming a United State citizen Monday, May 1, at the Lebanon County court house.
Michael K. Dakota, Lebanon Daily

Thomas M. Place, Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law, speaks to candidates for American citizenship during the Naturalization Ceremony held in Lebanon Monday afternoon, May 1.
Michael K. Dakota, Lebanon Daily

A visit to the United States by her father more than a decade ago led to the milestone Monday in Jessica Quichis Mautino’s life.

Mautino, born in Peru, was among 15 people from 10 countries who became United States citizens at Law Day and Naturalization ceremonies in the Lebanon County municipal building. Their native countries included Egypt, Kenya and China.

Mautino's father came to America to visit some friends, she said, and he liked the country so much that he decided to stay. Eventually, the rest of the family followed.

Mautino, who lives in Lebanon, moved to America 11 years ago when she was 15. She recently started a job as a medical assistant at Wellspan Good Samaritan Hospital,

The promise of better jobs lured Gustavo Rodriguez and his wife, Veronica Villasenor, to the United States from Mexico. Both became citizens Monday.

“We came to advance our careers,” Villasenor said. Both work for the Hershey Company in Derry Township and were employed by the company when they lived in Mexico.

Thomas M. Place, a law professor at Penn State Dickinson School of Law, talked to the new citizens about the importance of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which will mark its 150th anniversary next year, and how it reshaped American law and society.

“In time, the 14th Amendment changed our understanding of what it means to be an American,” Place said.

Throughout its history, the equal protection amendment played a pivotal role to extend the reach of the Bill of Rights to the states, he said. The amendment prevented states from denying any person equal protection from the law, said Place, who teaches courses on criminal procedure, constitutional law, free speech and post-conviction process.

Throughout the amendment’s history, it has been argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that segregation was legal in 1896, Place said. That was the law of the land for 50 years before the Supreme Court, in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, overturned its earlier decision and rejected the concept of separate but equal, the law professor said.

During the Law Day ceremony, seven attorneys were admitted to the Lebanon County Bar. They were Robert Harding, Matthew R. Mellon, Melissa J. Noyes, Lora Rupert, Margaret McDonough, Joshua Harshberger and Michael Chabitnoy.

President Judge John C. Tylwalk presented an award to Ryan Daub, this year’s winner of the Lebanon County Bar Association’s Law Day essay contest. He is an eighth grade student in the Elco School District.

Providing music during the ceremony were members of the Palmyra High School-Middle School Choir.